


Words Not Spoken

by purpleeyesandbowties



Category: EOS 10 (Podcast)
Genre: (original i know), M/M, Soulmate AU, au where the first words your soulmate says to you are on your wrist, mostly canon-compliant, ry and ak have secret double conversations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 20:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6128785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purpleeyesandbowties/pseuds/purpleeyesandbowties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Akmazian never met his soulmate it would be too soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words Not Spoken

**Author's Note:**

> the obligatory soulmate au where the first words your soulmate says to you are written on your wrist.

If Akmazian never met his soulmate it would be too soon. Sure, as a kid he had dreamed of it—meeting his perfect other half. The person whose strengths balanced out his weaknesses and vice versa. The one other person alive that understood him completely, who loved him for him and took all of his good and bad together.

 Of course, that was a child's dream. There was no way someone like him could have love. Even if he ever met his soulmate, Akmazian would have to let them go for their own safety. At this point he doubted his soulmate would want him anyway; not after all the things he had done. It would be easier if they never even met. 

 

"You're...Akmazian?" A small, messy scrawl on his wrist asked.

The first thing his soulmate would ever say to him.

Akamzian had heard those words time and time again throughout his life. But they never felt right. Not quite the right tone, not exactly the correct inflection. Like an imposter was speaking them. He figured he would feel it when his true soulmate said them. If they ever did. Half of him went through life straining to hear those words. Half of him hoped he never would.

 

\--

 

Akmazian fairly swaggered into the cargo bay. His guards were holding his "guests" until he arrived. Any friends of that deposed prince were no friends of his. His gaze swept across the gathered people—Levi of course, a nurse, and two doctors—one young and one old. The young doctor looked supremely uncomfortable. He was sweating and fidgeting, but not in fear like most of Akmazian’s “guests” tended to. The man looked like he was in pain. Suddenly the request for Benzatoin 5 made a lot more sense.

 Akmazian found himself studying the man intently. There was nothing really outstanding about his features, expect perhaps his unusually large forehead. But something about him drew Akmazian’s gaze.

 

"You come as Alliance spies," he said with his signature tone of dangerous nonchalance. The man he'd been eyeing up made an incredulous noise.

"You're...Akmazian?”

Akmazian's world ground to a stop.

 

The words on his wrist, the ones that sounded right for the first time in his life, burned against his skin. Instinctively, he clutched his wrist, as if putting pressure against the words would make them fade away again. No. Not here, not now. Not after he had convinced himself he was better off alone. Not after he'd spent all that time pushing back the wanting until it stung instead of gnawed. All the terrible longing, all the painful hope—it all came pouring back like he was a kid again reading the words on his wrist for the first time.

 

He didn't catch the man's next words, but clearly saw the look of skeptical disgust.  His own mouth twisted up. He knocked the old man on the head with the butt of his blaster, cutting him off, and did the same to his soulma—the young man.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed the woman, dropping to her knees next to them. "Stop—this one's penis hurts and that one is very old!"

The two on the ground grumbled at the young woman—Jane, Akmazian heard one of them say.

"Alright, enough! To your feet." he said brusquely, addressing his soulmate directly for the first time. “Both of you.”

He watched the man carefully, saw him freeze and saw his hand clench up. Akmazian's own wrist burned in sympathy. No mistaking it, then. This man was his soulmate. Over his sudden internal unmanly shrieking, he pointed at him with his blaster.

"I said to your feet."

"I am...trying," he gritted out, glaring at Akmazian.

They blustered at each other for a moment, Akmazian counting on his bravado to hide the fact that he was shaking with nerves.

"You still haven't answered my question."

"What."

What's...wrong with you?" Akmazian asked, less harshly than he'd intended.

Ryan looked down, suddenly embarrassed. "Uh....what she said."

Akmazian scoffed. "Your penis hurts? That's a _medical_ description, doctor?"

The doctor responded with tired exasperation, something about people using the wrong tone. Akmazian wasn't paying attention. He was focused on studying his soulmate's face. Levi held out a pacifying hand to intervene. "Akmazian, it's a rather delicate situation."

 

Ah, arguing with Levi. Finally Akmazian was back on solid ground.

"No one has yet offered me a reason to trust any one of you," he said, casually resting his blaster over his shoulder. "The least you, Your Royal Dishwasher."

 

Levi took the bait just as he hoped he would. It was cleansing to argue with Levi. His head slowed its spinning and his stomach settled down. He almost forgot his soulmate was standing right in front of him, too close to ignore and too far away to reach.

 

Until that soulmate shoved his way between them.

 

"Hey!" he shouted. Then, in a voice dripping with annoyance, "excuse me, excuse me. Hi. I don't mean to interrupt the grand bargaining here and—" he eyed Akmazian in a distrustful way that sent a jolt of shame down his spine, "I really don't want to get hit with that guy's rifle again—but can we get to the matter at hand?"

"You got a lot of nerve talking to me like that," Akmazian warned.

"You've got a lot of nerve just being  _you,"_ the doctor shot back, holding his gaze.

Akmazian paused.

Goddamn. Gutsy move from a guy who was barely managing to stay upright.

He let a rueful laugh escape, shaking his head. 

"I like you," he said, looking at him from out of the corner of his eye. The doctor's face flushed and he looked away. Hmm, blush was a nice color on him. But back to business.

"And I don't like a lot of people. Okay. You're not an Alliance spy. You're here ‘cause you're sick. Prove it."

"Prove it?"

"Yeah." 

"How?"

"Show me."

"What?"

There was that blush again. Akmazian had a sudden thought to step closer, run his fingers across the man's cheek, to feel that blush himself. He wondered if the man's skin would be as warm and soft as it looked.

_What kind of gay-ass shit...?_

It was the soulmate thing. His proximity was doing lovely-dovey shit to him. Akmazian shook his head to clear it. It's not like he could...

He fully intended to never cross paths with this man ever again. He'd....jump ship, find another hiding spot. Just like he'd always planned. Anything to get himself away from the temptation of the man's soft eyes and memorizing blushes.

_There I go with that sappy shit again...._

While Akmazian had been mentally smacking himself out of a fantasy where he might actually end up happy, the doctor finished up grumbling and dropped his pants.

And.

Oh. No _wonder_ this guy was his soulmate.

Except for...

"Is it always that color?"

"Not typically, no."

Akmazian let out a breath of relief. Wait, why? It wasn't like he was gonna let himself actually shack up with....aw fuck it. He totally was. Or at least, he was gonna try.

"Okay, I believe you."

 

The decent thing to do would be to help him. Give him the medicine; let him leave Akmazian behind, drink until he forgot this whole thing. 

But because he was an asshole, he wanted the excuse to be around his soulmate for just a little bit longer. So he picked a fight about how they would report him to the authorities as soon as he let them go. 

( _Not that it mattered,_ he thought _, because I'm jumping first freighter out of here tomorrow morning. I can't put him in danger by staying_. But it didn't sound convincing, even to himself.)

The old man and Jane lied through their teeth, promising not to turn him in. Akmazian narrowed his eyes, repositioning his grip on his blaster meaningfully.

And then the doctor held up his hand. 

"You're right," he said.

"What."

 "You're right. We don't have a choice," he repeated.

"Ryan!" Jane exclaimed.

( _Ryan,_ thought Akmazian, a touch hysterically. _His name is Ryan. My soulmate's name is Ryan. Akmazian, the Destroyer of the Forth War, and his boyfriend. Ryan._ )

But Akmazian actually cracked a smile when Ryan casually supplied a “Shut up, Levi” a few moments later. They would get along fine provided the time and the right opportunity.

"Now I like the way you think, Doctor Dalias," he said, letting a bit of flirtation slip into his tone. Fuck it all—that boy was his.

Ryan shot him a sharp look. "Don't. Don't do that."

Well, that wasn't the reaction he was expecting. "What?"

"Don't. Compliment me, don't compare us. I-I mean really, I am not relishing this."

Akmazian's smirk slid off his face. Once again he held his wrist where's Ryan's words still pleasantly burned.

"So you believe you're better than me." _So you believe you're too good for me?_

 

"Definitely. Dare I say, obviously?"

_That_ was a rejection if Akmazian ever heard one. "Well, I guess we're done here. Kill them."

Maybe a little extreme. But it was an automatic response—if Ryan thought he was too good for his own fucking soulmate, Akmazian would prove him right.

 

The cargo bay broke out in an argument, which derailed into a side conversation about Ryan having sex with a woman named Sierra, which did nothing to improve Akmazian's mood. Testily, he said, "Excuse me. Hi. Terrorist over here, about to kill you. You're all very afraid?"

Ryan took a step forward, staring Akmazian down. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Oh no?"  _Then why are you running from me?_

"This was a mistake. Let's go."  _Why wouldn't I run from you, terrorist?_

He turned and the others went to follow. Akmazian shot his hand out and grabbed Ryan's wrist. Both their eyes widened at the contact of skin on soulmark shot a bolt of electricity between them. 

"Maybe....I have an alternative."  _So you don't want to be my soulmate. Fine. Just don't leave me here in this empty cargo bay._

"I'm not interested."

"What about your medicine?" _You know you need this as much as I do. You can't resist it any more than I can._

Ryan sighed, pulling his wrist from Akmazian’s grasp. "There's another option we haven't pursued. It involves a needle; I'm not looking forward to it."

So apparently he could resist it. Better than Akmazian could. So he brought out his last bargaining chip, all the cards on the table.

"What about the Euclidean System?"

Ryan froze. His posture shifted and Akmazian knew he had his undivided attention.

 

"I'm not negotiating with the Alliance. I'm negotiating with you, Doctor Dalias. So what's more important—bringing me to justice or the lives of forty billion people?"

"Like that would make up for the ones you've already killed?"

"Their lives are in your hands, Doctor Dalias." _And mine. More than my life, my entire future, my happiness. It's all in your hands._

"I don't believe you," Ryan said.

"All you have to do is keep my little secret."  _Well. Two secrets._  "And the vaccine is yours."  _And I'm all yours_.

"No," said Ryan, upset. "You don't get to call the shots here! You're a mass murderer!" _You can’t be my soulmate! You’re a mass murderer!_

"Would it help you if I told you I was innocent?"

"He has said that several times," Levi ventured.

"Shut up. _Levi._ " Ryan said, not taking his eyes off Akmazian.

"You want me to trust you. Why won't you trust me?" _Why won't you listen to your heart and your soul and your stupid goddamn fucking wrist? It's written right there, clear as day._

"So what if you are innocent?"  _So what if you are my soulmate?_ "You're obviously not above gambling with the lives of forty billion to get what you want!"  _Me_.

"And you weren't above coming here in the first place, were you?" Akmazian shouted. _You came here, same as me. You felt the burn on your skin, same as me._

"Kinda got you there."

"Shut up Jane.”

"See I don't think we're as different as you desperately want to believe we are, Doctor." _And the proof is right there on your skin._

When Ryan didn’t react, Akmazian shrugged, faux-careless.

"But if it makes you feel better. Then fine. Take the moral high ground. Look down on me all you want." _Pretend we aren't what we are. It won't change a thing._

"But tell me you'll sleep soundly tonight knowing you walked away from the chance to save not a thousand lives, not a million, but billions."  _And me. Tell you you'll sleep soundly knowing you walked away from me._

"We haven't lost the system yet." _Watch me walk away. I don't care about you._

"But you will." _But you will._

Akmazian shook a handful of pills out and offered them to Ryan.

"Here. As a measure of my good faith. To show you I'm not completely the monster you presume me to be. It's yours. Benzatoin 5. No strings attached."

Ryan held out his hand reluctantly.

"Good faith, huh? That's what you call bargaining with an entire star system?" _You really think it would be that easy?_

Akmazian chuckled, dragging his fingers across Ryan's palm as the pills changed hands. "I'm not gonna win any points with you, am I?"  _No, I knew it wouldn't be. Can't blame me for trying, darlin._

"Ryan. The situation in the Euclidian System is desperate. If we can help..." Urvidian said, speaking up for the first time in a while. Akmazian could see the calculation in his face.

"I'd listen to the man," he said.

"The price is too high,” Ryan argued.

"We can't bring back the ones he's killed," continued Urvidian, who was rapidly becoming Akmazian's favorite. "But we can help the ones who are still alive."

"And when he kills again?"

"Not gonna happen," Akmazian said calmly. _I won’t, I swear I won’t. As much as you don’t want to believe it, I’m not that kind of man._

"Forgive me if I'm having trouble taking you at your word."  _You're right, I don’t believe you._

"What can I do to convince you?" Akmazian demanded. His fingers twitched towards his wrist, but fell against his side instead. _What will make you stay here with me?_

"Turn yourself in."  _Don't be a mass-fucking-murderer._

"Mm, unlikely." _Can't change the past, darlin._

"He could have killed us by now. But he hasn't," Urvidian cut in, oblivious to the double conversation.

"Ooh, that's a very good point."

If ever they parted ways without anyone getting shot, he wanted the old guy on his side. 

"What are you, his defense attorney?" Ryan asked, turning his glare from Akmazian to Urvidian. Akmazian took the opportunity away from Ryan's immobilizing glower to rub at his wrist, which still ached.

Ryan's friends chimed in their opinions and Akmazian could see his resolve weakening.

"Well, Doctor Dalias. Do we have a deal?"

Ryan sent a withering glare at Akmazian's outstretched hand. He took it icily.

"Don't think this changes anything between us. It doesn't."

Akmazian winked, relishing the rightness of Ryan's hand in his. Ryan must have felt it too, because he didn't let go either. He didn't try to leave, even as Akmazian stepped close enough to murmur, "If ever you get tired of runnin' from this, you know where to find me." 

"Not likely," Ryan said, but he was still holding Akmazian's hand.

"We'll see about that, darlin'."

He smiled brightly at Ryan's departing group. Maybe he wouldn't take off right away after all. There was no harm in sticking around for little bit longer. Just to see what happened.

**Author's Note:**

> im sadhipstercat on tumblr, 100% here to yell about these gay space dorks


End file.
